In 2015, Taiwan's PMOLED maker WiseChip Semiconductors licensed National Tsing-Hua University's blue-light free OLED lighting technology (called Candlelight OLEDs), with an aim to mass produce these OLEDs by the end of 2017.
National Tsing-Hua University demonstrated the latest panel at SID DisplayWeek a few weeks ago, as can be seen in the video above.
Korean news site DDaily posted an interesting article that states that LG Display is looking to replace the fluorescent OLED emitter used in its OLED TVs with a blue TADF emitter.
Following the introduction into LG's OLED TV production process, LG hopes to also use TADF materials in its small and medium OLED production. The report is a bit confusing, but it seems that LGD also aims to use its WOLED display in small and medium display formats - even for VR applications.
Idemitsu Kosan and BOE Display agreed to form a strategic alliance with an aim to develop high-performance OLED materials and displays. Specifically, Idemitsu intends to develop and supply OLED materials in accordance with BOE's needs, as BOE is starting to mass producing OLED displays in several fabs in across China.
Idemitsu Kosan is in the process of expanding its OLED material production at its Korean subsidiary Idemitsu Electronic Materials Korea, and the company also recently established a new OLED materials development company in Switzerland. Idemitsu is supplying its OLED materials to both LG Display and Samsung Display and is apparently enjoying an increased demand and is looking to start selling its materials to BOE DIsplay as well. We recently posted aninterview with Idemitsu's electronics materials chief.
Germany-based blue-TADF OLED emitter developer Cynora announced that it achieved a new performance record with its latest blue emitter material - which the company believes is the best overall performance of a high-efficiency blue emitter ever.
Cynora's new blue achieves a 15% EQE at 1000 cd/m² with an emission peak at < 470 nm and a LT97 of > 90 hours (at 700 cd/m²) on a device level. Cynora says that it is very confident that it can commercialize its first highly efficient blue emitter by the end of this year, as planned.
Universal Display announced its financial results for Q1 2017. The company reported an excellent quarter, with revenues of $55.6 million (up 87% from Q1 2016) and net income of $10.4 million (up from $1.9 million in Q1 2016). Material sales were $46.6 million, up 92% over Q1 2016.
Universal Display believes that the OLED industry is poised to grow faster than earlier expectations in 2017, and the company raised its 2017 guidance to at least $260 million to $280 million - reflecting a year over year growth of 30% to 40%.
Merck is going to discuss its latest soluble OLED material performance at SID DisplayWeek 2017 next month. Merck will detail the printed device efficiencies, voltages, and colors.
According to Merck, the efficiencies of its soluble OLED emitters are now comparable to state-of-the-art vapor-processed devices. Merck will also suggest a move from an evaporated blue common layer device architecture to a printed blue.
The EU launched a new project called HyperOLED with an aim to develop materials and matching device architectures for high-performance, hyperfluorescence TADF OLED emitters. HyperOLED is coordinated by Merck, and the project partners include MicroOLED and the Fraunhofer IOF institute. This three years project received a €4 million grant from the EU.
These OLED emitters will be realized by combining TADF molecular hosts with novel shielded fluorescence emitters, targeting saturated blue emission of very high efficiency at high brightness. The project will also achieve efficiency gains through molecular alignment to enhance light outcoupling.
Dr. Andreas Haldi was appointed as CYNORA's Chief Marketing Office in 2016. CYNORA develops efficient blue TADF OLED emitters, and Dr. Haldi was kind enough to participate in this interview and help us understand CYNORA's business and technology.
Q: Thank you Andreas for helping us understand CYNORA's business and technology better. CYNORA has set up on a focused mission to develop a commercial blue TADF emitter. What will you consider to be a market-ready material, in terms of lifetime, efficiency and color point?
For the last 5 years, CYNORA has worked on developing thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) OLED emitters. End of 2015 we started to focus on efficient blue materials, which are still a key issue for OLED displays. Compared to the red and green pixels, the blue pixel is much less efficient. An increased efficiency of the blue pixel would therefore significantly reduce the power consumption of the display.
According to the Korea Herald, Samsung Electronics demonstrated several new display technologies in a private room during the Mobile World Congress last month. All of these technologies are expected to enter production within the next year or two, according to the source quoted by the report.
The report claims that Samsung demonstrated a high-resolution AMOLED panel for VR applications. The AMOLED on display featured a 1,200 PPI - much higher than Samsung's current highest density displays which are 577 PPI. Samsung's aim is to reach 1,500 PPI which will greatly enhance the VR experience.
In November 2016 Sunic Systems announced that it developed an plane-source evaporation-FMM based AMOLED production process that can reach very high densities. The 100um mask announced in November can achieve a PPI of 1,500. This may be the system that Samsung is now testing. Sunic says that eventually this technology will enable even 2,250 PPI.
In 2016, TADF (Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence) emitters have received much attention in the OLED industry as the most promising method to improve OLED displays. CYNORA is one of the most active companies with several years of experience in this field and the company is now getting ready to bring a first blue TADF material to the OLED market.
In a little more than one year, CYNORA has set itself up to become a major OLED material supplier. First, an experienced CEO in this field, Gildas Sorin, the former CEO of Novaled GmbH, was brought in. Since then, CYNORA has shown significant improvement in material performance starting with the announcement of two milestones.
